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Aj ki Raat.(.tonight)
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Oct 29, 2010 4:28 pm
2147 Views
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Do not strike the chord of sorrow tonight!
Days burning with pain turn to ashes.
Who knows what happens tomorrow?
Last night is lost; tomorrow's frontier wiped out:
Who knows if there will be another dawn?
Life is nothing, it's only tonight!
Tonight we can be what the gods are!
Do not strike the chord of sorrow, tonight!
Do not repeat stories of sufferings now,
Do not complain, let your fate play its role,
Do not think of tomorrows, give a damn--
Shed no tears for seasons gone by,
All sighs and cries wind up their tales,
Oh, do not strike the same chord again!
Faiz
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The Road Not Taken
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Oct 23, 2010 2:54 pm
2090 Views
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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
by Robert Frost.
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Song of Beauty
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Oct 20, 2010 2:03 pm
1817 Views
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They were drowned in their own fear
And the frightened sense of sin
Had paralysed
Their blind, dumb souls ...
Perhaps
Behind their crushed eyes, at the depth of inanimateness,
Something confused, with a flicker of life,
Was still left;
And, with its faint effort,
It wanted to believe in the purity of the waters' songs.
Perhaps; but what an infinite emptiness!
The sun was dead,
And no one knew
That the name of the sad dove,
Which had escaped from hearts, was Faith.
by Forugh Farrokhzad.
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Autumn
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Oct 18, 2010 1:13 pm
1781 Views
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The name of it is "Autumn" ,
The hue of it is Blood ,
An Artery upon the Hill ,
A Vein along the Road ,
Great Globules in the Alleys ,
And Oh, the Shower of Stain
When Winds upset the Basin ,
And spill the Scarlet Rain ,
It sprinkles Bonnets far below,
It gathers ruddy Pools ,
Then eddies like a Rose away ,
Upon Vermilion Wheels .
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Again a Great Game
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Oct 16, 2010 5:18 pm
1977 Views
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"And hard by Gilgit it is that, in an undefined way, on the high Roof of the World – what more fitting a place! – the three greatest Empires of the Earth meet – Great Britain, Russia and China.”–E F Knight in Where Three Empires Meet, 1892.
The three greatest empires of the 19th century were attracted to the Himalayan region and the Central Asian principalities because of these places’ geostrategic importance. To establish their supremacy there the British and the Russian empires embarked on a new political game. Believed to have been coined by the East India Company’s intelligence officer Capt Arthur Conolly, the term “Great Game” was immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim. The term, and the region to which it applied, subsequently disappeared from modern political discourse. But after the end of the Cold War the phrase and the region re-emerged on the political radar screen of global politics.
In his article, “China’s discreet hold on Pakistan’s northern borderlands,” Selig S Harrison has expressed his concern that the “Chinese behemoth” would devour Gilgit-Baltistan. Writing in The New York Times on Aug 26, Harrison, director of the Asia Programme at the Centre for International Policy, said there were 7,000-11,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) present in the region.
In his article “China and India: the great game’s new players”, Jaswant Singh, India’s former minister for defence and foreign affairs, wrote in The Guardian on Sept 25 that China, hungry for land, water and raw materials is encroaching on Himalayan regions redoubting and directly challenging India.
The newfound interest of policymakers and political pundits of different states in Gilgit-Baltistan is evidence of a revival of the Great Game. It supports Peter Hopkirk’s observation in The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia that “not much has changed in the last hundred years,” and that “the Great Game is still ominously topical.”
In the New Great Game, the only change is the addition of new players: India, Pakistan and, indirectly, the United States. Gilgit-Baltistan has a geography of pivotal geostrategic importance, which is why the New Great Game is liable to produce profound repercussions in the region.
The Karakoram Highway there was built by the personnel of the PLA with the help of the Pakistani army’s corps of engineers. The highway helped the Chinese win the hearts of the local people. The Chinese are now upgrading the highway and working on other projects within the region.
Their initiatives in the region are driven by economic interest rather than ideological affiliation. They have until now focused on building infrastructure. Their contribution in social development is nonexistent. On the other hand, Western countries are working in collaboration in the social-development sector with the government and NGOs, with little focus on infrastructure.
It is yet to be seen whether infrastructure development or social interventions are going to tilt the local population towards the players in the New Great Game. But it is imperative for the local people to get an understanding of the complexities of the New Great Game which blurs boundaries between local, national, regional and international interests.
The people of Gilgit-Baltistan are still more vulnerable to the game being played there because of the region’s ambiguous status within Pakistan. It is still outside the ambit of the constitution and has no representation in parliament, and has therefore no role in decision-making in Islamabad.
During the Great Game the players either negotiated with or confronted local rulers of the different valleys in the region. Since the interests of the local rulers and people were embedded within the indigenous power relations of society, they were not ready to surrender their power to foreign forces. Unfortunately, there is no link in the current dispensation which links power with the interest of the local populace.
Furthermore, the convergence of conflicting interests and continuous unrest in the same space might pave the way for the new players to intervene. Sporadic sectarian violence, incessant targeted killings and segregation of people of the same family, ethnicity and language along sectarian lines in Gilgit are just parts of the bigger picture of the New Great Game.
To protect Gilgit-Baltistan from the fallouts of this game, it is indispensable for the local people to be empowered economically, politically and constitutionally. Provisional arrangements will make the people an easy prey to the power politics of the New Great Game.
The local people interpret the politics of different countries regarding Gilgit-Baltistan through folk lore, such as the prophecy of a shaman named Khameto. Centuries ago, the legendary shaman predicted a great war in the following song in the Shina language: Peace will prevail,
When horses wade through the blood up to their knees at Khunjerab, The meaning of Khunjerab in the Wakhi language is “blood stream.”
A logical analysis of the modern power politics of the region lead us to a similar conclusion. Let us remember that the players of the New Great Game are three nuclear states.
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Fairy of the Magpie Bridge
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Oct 6, 2010 1:31 pm
1859 Views
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Qin Guan of in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Yonder clouds weaving together
Amidst the flaming stars
Drifting along the heavenlies
Bringing two Lovers from afar
The Lovers’ rendezvous tonight
Adorned the autumn sky
No joy on earth e'en a hundred thousand times
May compare to the Lovers’ meeting eyes
Precious and tender, the Lovers’ love
‘twas like a beautiful beautiful dream
Yet gazing mournfully at the magpie bridge
That will set them apart again
But Eternal Lovers if they were so
Will time apart they not endure?
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Why you far away............
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Oct 3, 2010 1:40 pm
1772 Views
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Outside the railings chrysanthemums are sad,
And orchids are shedding tears of dew.
The silk curtains hang light and cool,
A pair of swallows flying off.
The bright moon knows not the sorrow
Of departure and solitude,
It's slanting rays piercing the vermilion portals
Till dawn breaks.
Last night the west wind withered the emerald leaves.
Alone, I mounted the stairs
To look down the endless road.
I wanted to write but had not elegant notepaper.
And the rivers are wide, and the mountains so high,
I do not know where to locate you..
by Yan Shu
song dynasty.
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One Day It Will Come
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Sep 24, 2010 3:02 pm
1222 Views
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The dry leaves will fall
And when April arrives
You will touch my soul
You will approach... will come for me
After so much solitude
I want to feel
To find my peace in you
When the city sleeps
And the sun slips away
I will seek you again
Until reaching this illusion
I find you... and you love me like this
And I will listen in the silence to the voice of the heart
And the storm will abate in your arms
It's worth it to expect your love
Because one day it will come
I will find you... and you will love me like this...
And I will listen in the silence to the voice of the heart
And the storm will abate in your arms
It's worth it to hope for your love tomorrow
I will embrace you in the silence
All my life, I have waited for your love
And the arrival of the day when you come to me
By Josh Groban
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The new Great Game
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Sep 17, 2010 7:06 pm
1103 Views
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Is Gilgit Baltistan a new pot for cooking a mix of chinese, south asian and continental cuisines by the Yankee and the asian dragon with hot spices from the south asian vultures? Or is Gilgit-Baltistan coincidentally wedged between the devil and the hard rock or is it only a corridor for the exchange of flood waves?
While the first/old great game that was played by the British Empire and the Tsarist Russia ended in the division of Badakhshan in Central Asia along the Panj River into Afghan and Tajik parts, and later when the sun set on the British empire in subcontinent, we found that it left Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan divided as a bleeding wound between the asian dragon and south asian vultures. At the height of the cold war, when USSR entered Afghanistan and the US and allies fought back through proxies and denied the polar bear access to the warm waters, it ended in a devastated, high and dry Kabul, which still continues to bleed. What will happen this time, when the uneasy, but rising asian dragon meets the naked American imperialism at its very borders in Afghanistan and Central Asia for the first time, and when New Delhi darbar's greater ambitions and Pakistan’s’ sense of state insecurity-and notions of strategic depth, and internal anomalies of misgovernance oscillate courting between the two poles? while Tehran continues to pinch the US-Israeli-Saudi nexus in the Gulf, what new order is in the making in this region? Is Gilgit-Baltistan another pawn in the chess game along with Afghanistan and Kashmir in the new great game?
On August 26, 2010, Selig S. Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a former South Asia bureau chief of The Washington Post published an opinion in the New York Times entitled as, ’ China's Discreet Hold on Pakistan's Northern Borderlands’.
Building his arguments around the increasing Chinese strategic investments in Pakistan in term of providing men, money and machine, especially in building the Gawadar Port (which the author called Chinese-built Pakistani naval bases in Gawadar, Pasni and Ormara), widening of the Karakoram Highway and projects related to construction of small and large dams and ‘construction of 22 tunnels in secret locations’ in the Karakoram and Himalayas, the author has termed it as, ‘influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the Peoples Liberation Army-PLA.
Why China would take this gigantic step? In the author’s own analysis, because, ‘China wants a grip on the region to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan as it takes 16 to 25 days for Chinese oil tankers to reach the Gulf. When high-speed rail and road links through Gilgit and Baltistan are completed, China will be able to transport cargo from Eastern China to the new Chinese-built Pakistani naval bases at Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara, just east of the Gulf, within 48 hours’.
And why build 22 tunnels? Because, the author goes on, ‘tunnels would be necessary for a projected gas pipeline from Iran to China that would cross the Himalayas through Gilgit’. Why build these in secret locations?, because, ’ they could also be used for missile storage sites’.
Why has Pakistan reportedly agreed to cede ‘de facto control of Gilgit-Baltistan region to China’, which the author claims was part of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir? The author offers two lines of arguments; first, ’ What is happening in the region matters to Washington for two reasons. Coupled with its support for the Taliban, Islamabad’s collusion in facilitating China’s access to the Gulf makes clear that Pakistan is not a U.S. “ally.”, second, ‘Equally important, the nascent revolt in the Gilgit-Baltistan region’...’where Sunni jihadi groups allied with the Pakistan Army have systematically terrorized the local Shiite Muslims.. ‘Gilgit and Baltistan are in effect under military rule. Democratic activists there want a legislature and other institutions without restrictions like the ones imposed on Free Kashmir’.
What is the author suggesting to stop China to 'engulf' Gilgit-Baltistan and what are the next steps for the Yankee- the United States of America:
“The United States is uniquely situated to play a moderating role in Kashmir, given its growing economic and military ties with India and Pakistan’s aid dependence on Washington. Such a role should be limited to quiet diplomacy. Washington should press New Delhi to resume autonomy negotiations with Kashmiri separatists. Success would put pressure on Islamabad for comparable concessions in Free Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. In Pakistan, Washington should focus on getting Islamabad to stop aiding the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley and to give New Delhi a formal commitment that it will not annex Gilgit and Baltistan. Precisely because the Gilgit-Baltistan region is so important to China, the United States, India and Pakistan should work together to make sure that it is not overwhelmed, like Tibet, by the Chinese behemoth”.
This op-ed by Harrison was taken by many Indian, Pakistani, Russian, European, south Asian newspapers, online blogs etc., and opinions, analysis and comments were made some condemning Pakistan and China for taking over Gilgit-Baltistan others, including foreign office officials in Peking and Islamabad rejecting the op-ed as baseless, absurd and provocative. Some analysts in India went on to say that it was actually China’s internal problems in Muslim majority Xinjiang that prompted it to work closely with Pakistan to secure its border region from infiltration. Gilgit-Baltistan being the frontline region for making or breaking peaceful co-existence between Pakistan and China. Therefore it is in the interest of China and Pakistan to keep Gilgit-Baltistan terrorist-free and free of jihadi groups and create an island of economic prosperity and peace in this poverty stricken and sensitive region.
What is in this story for us, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan?
Many people here in Gilgit Baltistan are of the view that renewed closer economic ties with China and the Xinjiang province will benefit the people of Gilgit Baltistan and also create deeper strategic relations between China and Pakistan which is in the interest of regional peace and security and shall promote regional economic integration between South and Central Asia.
China is also seen as a stabilizing factor in the region. However, Islamabad also shares Chinese concerns about what it calls the three evils; separatism, fanaticism and terrorism in Xinjiang. Both countries agree that counter-terrorism, counter-separatism and counter-fanaticism strategies are required both at local, national and regional levels between Pakistan and China. However, in doing so it is also important for both countries to protect, promote and deepen local self governance, local autonomy and strengthen empowerment of local people and guarantee the fundamental rights of the local people to use and own their own resources on their own homelands through fairplay and internationally accepted principles.
In the new great game for access to the oil and gas reserves of Central Asia, controlling trade corridors and reaching out to the warm waters of the Gulf and the Arabian Sea, any regional strategy and frameworks must underline the aspect of self rule, alleviating the sufferings of the mountain people in these strategic nodes, and protecting their fundamental rights guaranteed by international conventions rectified by both Islamabad and Peking.
At the same time, the local people in Gilgit-Baltistan and Xinjiang must rise above petty internal conflicts and schism and accept plurality of views, adopt progressive ideas and embark on social modernization and educate their children to benefit from the new opportunities.
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You come to us
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Sep 12, 2010 6:37 am
1036 Views
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You come to us from another world
From beyond the stars and void of space.
Transcendent. Pure. Of unimaginable beauty.
Bringing with you the essence of Love.
You transform all who are touched by you.
Mundane concerns, troubles and sorrows
Dissolve in your presence.
Bringing joy to ruler and ruled. To peasant and king.
You bewilder us with your grace.
All evils transform into goodness.
You are the master alchemist.
You light the fire of Love in earth and sky
in heart and soul of every being.
Through your loving existence and non-existence merge.
All opposites unite.
All that is profane becomes sacred again.
by Rumi
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